1. Field
This disclosure relates to methods, systems, and computer program products for matching software plug-ins to users using triggers and filters.
2. Description of Background
Software design is experiencing a paradigm shift trending towards open software and plug-in frameworks. Plug-ins allow the community of developers to create their own discrete features, which can easily be installed to the base software application in order to expand the functionality. Plug-ins have become prevalent for many popular applications, such as, Eclipse, Firefox, JEdit, Wordpress and many more.
However, the popularity of plug-ins also poses a problem. With so many plug-ins, it is difficult to know what even exists and which plug-ins would benefit the user. Often times, plug-ins are promoted through word of mouth or via blogs, and many users who find out about a useful plug-in realize that it would have benefited them to have installed the plug-in months or years earlier. As such, there is a great need for automatically matching available plug-ins to the users who would benefit from the plug-in, without the user needing explicit knowledge of the plug-ins existence.